OK, here are the answers I have so far....
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cancellation policy:
I've been over this with 4 different people now and just now finally got someone in the sales department to actually walk through a booking with me and see what the discrepency is. When you get to the point of a booking where you actually enter the credit card you see the following at the top of the screen:
Please apply a deposit in the amount listed below to confirm this reservation. In order to receive a full refund of the deposit, notification of cancellation must be received at least 45 days prior to the arrival date.
HOWEVER...at the very bottom of the screen you must accept the terms and conditions. If you click on terms and conditions, in bold print at the top of the pop up window it says
A credit card deposit must be received at time of booking or the reservation will be automatically cancelled. Your deposit not refundable.
the official answer from sales (who had not even heard of this till I pointed it out on both the TA site and the passholder site) is that they are 99% certain it is NONREFUNDABLE but will double check since their own site says 45 days at the top of a page and nonrefundable in a pop up window (which could be a HUGE nightmare for them given that not everyone will click the link to get the pop up). Guest services says nonrefundable...definitely nonrefundable.
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split stays:
just as always they are considered 2 separate and independent reservations so they would both require a deposit and would both would be nonrefundable.
-what rates are the matching:
sales says they will double check and get back to me on Monday but they are saying the same as guest services....public codes and AP codes only. Not PINs, not group rates, not
AAA rates. They will get back to me with a 100% definite answer.
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using AAA:
as always codes are not combinable so you would have to either book with AAA or book the passholder best rate program. Sales is "guessing" that they will still have regular passholder rates as we know them but that with this offer they would expect that if they are released for call ins that they will be "drastically limited" because if they determine availability for a discount, they have to first discount everyone in the best rate program first. They did say that they suspect that if the best rate program has nonrefundable first night's deposit that there is a good chance that this will be the case for all AP rates in the future.
So....that's what I know so far and I don't expect to hear more untill next week. So far, I've checked every single date available for a moderate and deluxe room and none have actually had a discount, all the rates showing up are rack. My assumption is that this is sort of like insurance on getting an AP rate. Probably a good thing if you are already a passholder and know you want XYZ resort for ABC dates and want that discount or no discount but for people who are just looking for the best deal (and really, who isn't?!?!?) then this is a gamble. Time will tell if it's a gamble that favors the house (Disney) or the player!
I'll post details as I learn of them!
I guess with the lack of concrete info today I'm not feeling confident enough to 'bet the farm" and lose what I already have. If I find out more info on Monday, though, I'll miss my 120 day window. Major bummer 
